You And I: Family Time

Connor V

When we landed, Troye and I hurried off the plane, not wanting to accidentally bump into the homophobic lady from earlier. It was a bit of a struggle to get everything sorted because Tori woke up as we got to the baggage claim area and started crying and Aiden was prancing around between us, the thought of seeing his friends soon making him hyper.

Eventually we got all our bags and headed through the terminal, hoping to get a cab fast.

"Troye! Connor!" I looked up tiredly at the sound of our names and saw Tanya waving at us. A grin spread across my face at the sight of our friends and both Troye and I quickened our pace.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" I asked when we were closer.

"We figured you'd be tired and didn't want you to have to deal with airport cabs." Jim said, coming up behind Tanya.

"You figured right. It's been a long trip. In more ways than one." Troye sighed.

"Uncle Jim! Auntie Tan!" Aiden cried, bounding over to them, giving each of them a hug.

"Hey little man. How are you? You've gotten so big since we saw you last time." Tanya said to him, ruffling his hair affectionately.

"Guess what?" Aiden asked, suddenly serious. 

"What?" Tan played along, a smile playing at her lips.

"I've got a little sister. Her name's Tori."

"I can see that. She's very cute. Is it okay if I ask your daddy if I can hold her?" We'd sent a group e-mail to all our friends a few weeks ago, telling them how protective of Tori he already was.

"Okay. But papa says you have to be careful to hold her." Tanya looked at him seriously.

"I'll be very careful, I promise." She stood back up and looked at Troye. "Can I meet her?"

"Sure." Troye handed the little girl over. She'd finally stopped crying and was fast asleep again.

"She's beautiful, guys." Jim said, looking over his wife's shoulder.

"She is. And even though she's not genetically ours, I swear she's got Con's eyes." Troye said.

"Does not." I argued. We'd had this conversation several times since we'd gotten her. "He's crazy." Jim just laughed.

"And her name is Victoria, right?" He questioned.

"Yeah. But we mostly call her Tori."

"Cute. It suits her." Tanya said, handing Tori back to Troye. The whole time, Aiden had been watching carefully and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing.  "Let's get going. Some of the others are here already."

"Sounds good. I think both of us need a nap after that flight." Troye sighed.

"Definitely." I agreed.

"Rough flight?" Jim asked as we started walking towards their car.

"Not in the way you're thinking."

"What then?" As we walked, I filled him in on the incident on the plane and the dramas we'd had getting off. He was sympathetic and offered to watch Aiden and Tori for a little bit while Troye and I slept.

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In the afternoon, we piled into Jim and Tanya's car again and headed to a local park where our other friends were waiting, all except for Zoe and Alfie who were flying in the next day. We were immediately surrounded by people wanting to meet and hold Tori since none of them had actually met her yet.